Warriors & Warlords: The Art of Angus McBride (General Military) Hardcover – October 18, 2002

Great pictures and study of the art

Angus McBride is one of the most talented artists in the historical field, and his pieces always rise above mere illustrations and give us snapshots of these people in believable, historical settings. His people aren't just modeling uniforms or equipment, they are caught mid-action, alive, and vibrantly. This is a good collection, though I'd kill for a more complete gathering of McBride's work. If you like this, try to track down the Iron Crown collection of his Middle-Earth work. head and shoulders above everyone else in that field, much like here.

Perhaps THE underrated illustrator of the 20th century - this book is the only source of info I've found on McBride's methods. The selection of images is broad and of historical interest - though perhaps not the most compelling of McBride's work, but solid. Welcome/prized addition to my library. If you are a McBride fan or an Osprey aficionado the book will not disappoint.

As an artist myself, and one with a long interest in historical costume, I have been a fan of Angus McBride for many years with a large collection of books from the Osprey series...although not all of them are illustrated by this supreme master. McBride's style is in a class of its own, in both beauty and accuracy, and I am delighted to finally have this hard back compilation. It is a treasure! The only reason I awarded it four rather than five stars is that it could have been substantially more comprehensive. I would happily have paid considerably more for the book if it had been Nevertheless, what is here is stunning!!

This is a nice mix of McBride's work as well as a short biography on the late artist himself. Also comes with a list of all the Osprey work he illustrated over the years.

A superb collection of one of the premiere illustrators of Military history's works. Excellent reference. Perfect condition and fast shipping.

Delivered in poor condition. Book cover is damaged, dirty and has numerous stickers on it. I'm wondering if this was a used book that was sold as new.

Finally the long awaited collection of Angus McBride's military history illustrations has arrived in a quality, hard cover book. I say collection but it is really more of a sampler of the unbelievably prolific McBride's work, as he has turned out in excess of 700 paintings for Osprey Publications alone and this book contains but 45 of them.The book is hard cover with a dust jacket; 9 1/2 x 11; 144 pages; good quality paper with a built in, ribbon book mark. Very nice.The first few pages are devoted to a brief biography followed by an interview with McBride in which he discusses working techniques, the problems of historical illustration, etc.Now, as Angus might say, to our muttons. The paintings range from Ancient Egypt to WW II, all, of course, with a military orientation but by no means all battle scenes. Actually, less than half are depictions of battle. In contrast, there is a wonderful piece in which a dismounted Armenian cavalryman (leading an obviously nervous horse), a monk and a serf coaxing a very recalcitrant donkey, are crossing a boiling mountain stream on a rickety, wooden bridge, all against a soft and peaceful woodland setting; the McBride touch. There are several pages with just a single figure against white with details of equiptment and clothing to the side, and they are splendid. Among these, the Visigoth Warrior is a particular favorite of mine. Also, the ladies are not excluded from this book. Queen Zenobia is featured in a plate as is a Mixtec Queen and there is also a plate of WACs, WAVES and women Marines.There are 34 single plates and 11 double page spreads. The layouts for the single page paintings have the reproduction on the right hand page faced by a description of the piece and an enlarged detail which can offer a close up view of the artist's working methods. The description and details of the double page spreads are on the two pages preceeding the painting. The cropping of the single plates is sometimes extreme but the trade off is that the viewer gets a closer look of the main elements of the work. Vignettes are taken right to the edge of the page. You literally get a full page of art. Devoted fans of Angus may wonder at some of the selections chosen for reproduction in this book but even the somewhat questionable choices will offer up much material to be studied by artists, both professional and aspiring, as well as to be admired by the layman.The quality of the reproductions is for the most part excellent. Sharp and very colorful. As some British friends of my might say, "brilliant." A very few may be a little on the dark side but not really objectionable. Unfortunately one piece, The Battle of Hastings, is poorly reproduced (particularly in regard to the color balance) and even worse is the large detail of it at the beginning of the chapter. For some unknown reason the publishers chose to reproduce this one piece from a print rather than the original transparency and, particularly in the much enlarged, chapter heading detail, this is painfully obvious. This reproduction does the artist no favors. Happily, it stands alone in the book.Overall I give this book a high recommendation. Military buffs and artists will find it especially appealing but my recommendation also extends to anyone who appreciates fine, quality art work. It is an excellent book.Finally, we can hope, considering the volume of McBride's output, that there will be a Vol. II, a Vol. III, etc. Better yet, a larger format with two or three times as many pages; a proportionate increase in the volume of artwork; perhaps a few foldouts; a slipcase; in other words, a true "coffee table" book. Now there's an idea!